BibleProject - David, the Latecomer King – Firstborn E7

Episode Date: February 13, 2023

In the scroll of Samuel, Israel demands a king in place of the judges that have been ruling over them. It sounds like a simple enough request, but Yahweh calls it idolatrous. Why? In this episode, Tim and Jon discuss the motives behind Israel’s request and the role of Israel’s first kings, Saul and David, in the unfolding theme of the firstborn.View full show notes from this episode →Timestamps Part one (00:00-20:32)Part two (20:32-38:25)Part three (38:25-48:35)Part four (48:35-1:02:35)Referenced ResourcesInterested in more? Check out Tim’s library here.You can experience the literary themes and movements we’re tracing on the podcast in the BibleProject app, available for Android and iOS.Show Music “Defender (Instrumental)” by TENTS"Lotus Tea" by Xihcsr"Just Jammin" byTyler BaileySound design by Tyler BaileyShow produced by Cooper Peltz with Associate Producer Lindsey Ponder. Edited by Dan Gummel, Tyler Bailey, and Frank Garza. Podcast annotations for the BibleProject app by Hannah Woo.Powered and distributed by Simplecast.

Hey, this is Cooper at Bible Project. I produce the podcast in Classroom. We've been exploring a theme called the City, and it's a pretty big theme. So we decided to do two separate Q and R episodes about it. We're currently taking questions for the second Q and R and we'd love to hear from you. Just record your question by July 21st

and send it to us at infoatbiboproject.com. Let us know your name and where you're from, try to keep your question to about 20 seconds and please transcribe your question when you email it in, try to keep your question to about 20 seconds, and please transcribe your question when you email it in. That's a huge help to our team. We're excited to hear from you. Here's the episode.

The first born is a theme in the Bible about how God consistently chooses to work with and bless the least likely people. In our last episode, we looked at the story of Samuel, the first born son of Hannah, a humble barren woman who begs God for a son for years, God hears her and blesses her. With Samuel, who becomes Israel's priest, prophet and judge. In the story of Hannah, the lowly is exalted. Today we pick up where we left off with the story of Hannah, the lowly is exalted. Today we pick up where we left off with the story of Samuel.

He's an old man now, and the people of Israel look around and realize that all the other nations have powerful kings to rule them, and so they big Samuel to anoint a king for them. This request deeply upset Samuel, because up until now, Yahweh has been Israel's king.

To ask for the type of power that other nations have? Well, that's the same thing as idolatry. Throughout the book of Judges, whenever danger came on the scene, Yahweh's spirit would just pick somebody and raise them up, like a Gideon, or a Jeff's. But what a king is is like, hey, we can make our own institution with a guy at the head, and then that guy can protect us.

And that's the shift in legions that's happening here in the story, and it's being equated to the sin of the Golden Calf. Yahweh tells Samuel to give Israel what they want, and so they end up with Saul as their very first came. He's tall, he's handsome, he's good with the sword, he looks like the ideal choice, the kind of person we want to have in charge. He doesn't know he's not the first born as such, he is the first king that is placed

over Israel, and he's clearly the one that the people value, but God sees it as idolatrous from the start. The whole story of the rise and fall of Saul, then, is this case study in the failure of human idols to deliver. This brings us to the story of David, a shepherd boy who lives in the hills, a small overlooked boy of the youngest in his family, the least likely candidate to be king of Israel. What makes someone be the right person to be in charge? What qualifies someone for power is that they're tall, or that they come from a good family. So really this is a theme about humans are really poor judges of knowing what is truly valuable and good

And should be set above in this case positions of authority Today Tim Mackey and I talk about the theme of the first born in the story of Israel's first kings I'm John Collins. You're listening to Bible Project Podcast. Thanks for joining us. Here we go. All right, Tim. Hey John. Hey, we are smack dab in the middle of a theme. We're calling the theme of the first born. And it's really a theme about power. How does God deal with institutional power structures, whether that's within families or within cities? We haven't really gotten much to cities yet,

but I think we're gonna get into that territory today a little bit, perhaps. But the first born is the idea of this ancient practice of giving the rights of your rule and often like a double portion of inheritance to one favored child, which is the one that showed up first, here at Firstborn, child. And throughout the whole story of the Bible, God is messing with and adapting and doing all sorts of maneuvers with this practice and kind of messing with us as we think about

what does it mean for us to have God's power to rule on his behalf? So what's interesting is the idea of first born sons and then later born sons, that's kind of some of the first stories, especially in Genesis with Cain and Abel and Jacob and Esau, Joseph and his brothers, like that's where these themes really get rolling

But even within Genesis itself recall that the theme gets broadened out to other situations too like rival wives of Rachel and Leia or Sarah and Hegar and then as you go on throughout the Hebrew Bible It's contrasting how God consistently identifies with and elevates the one of lower social status, like the Israelites and slavery over Pharaoh and Egypt that are enfranchised in imperial power. So you get all these contrasts or like in the last conversation we had about Hannah and Eli you have this contrast between rival wives one who has children and one who doesn't but then also this contrast between like an old

Priest of high social rank in the community and then this young woman who doesn't have any children and Who gets accused of acting like she's drunk in public. And but actually God's favor is with her. And God is going to bring down the high and mighty old priest Eli and elevate the son of this woman to become the new priest and leader of Israel. So it begins with the first born and that's what the video will mostly focus on, but in these

conversations we've been following the theme, the firstborn is one way of the many ways that God challenges human structures of power and authority and value and subverts them to accomplish as well in the world. And that really is like the meta-theme that we're tracing. And it seems like that metatheme, to me, it seems like it comes to some sort of head here because now, as Israel has been like in the land for a while, and the power has just been shifting from one kind of tribal leader to the net. Yes, right. And it's not very organized. And they're looking around and they're like,

man, all these other nations around us have kings. They have one guy. Yeah, yeah, exactly. One guy who's like, he's got the power. Yeah. And it's like the ultimate patriarch. It's the ultimate like power broker who then passes on his power to his sons.

So they want to keep. Yeah, totally. What a perfect segue, John. It's like, this is your job to guide the conversation. Yeah, so what we're going to look at today is the story of the rise of the kingship in the story of Israel that leads to King David. And we're going to find all of the themeship in the story of Israel that leads to King David. And we're gonna find all of the themes we've been talking about, the language and the vocabulary, it all gets recycled here in the David story.

But in a really, of course, there's always a twist with the Hebrew Bible in a really creative and powerful way. So yeah, should we just dive in? Let's do it. Let's do it. Okay, so we're gonna actually first first just touch down before David comes on to the scene, and that is in 1 Samuel 8, is a key transition. 1 Samuel 1 through 7 is all about the rise of Samuel, and he is used by God to rescue Israel

from the Philistines. 1 Samuel chapter 8, we read. And it came about when Samuel was old that he appointed his sons as judges over Israel. So just right there. So Samuel is a man who was really shaped by powerful encounters with God, starting as a young boy.

And he's legit, you know? He's a great biblical character. He's been faithful to God to lead the people. So we're fast forwarding from when we were introduced to Samuel in our last conversation as the childborn of him. Yes, that's right. Who then was dedicated to be a pseudo priest, like a Nazarene kind of priest. Yeah, like a priestly assistant that God adopted into the, but then God elevates him above Eli and Eli's corrupt sons. So you had the high priest Eli.

Another reversal, yeah. Who had two corrupt sons and God elevated Samuel over those guys. And now just watch how this is going to work. So now Samuel's old. So we've, yeah. Now Samuel's old, and he's legit like we're yeah yeah the stories of a Samuel are great. Yeah he's been awesome. So it comes about when Samuels old and that he appointed his sons to be judges over Israel. So like you just said this is where Israel is a

federation of tribes in the land which is basically what they were in Joshua, the book of Joshua, and in the book of Judges. So it's really a federation of tribes living in the hill country. And so God throughout the book of Judges raised up different tribal leaders from different tribes for different periods of time to lead the people or rescue them from their enemies and so on. And so now Samuel has been that guy, and now he's old and so he's gonna pass it on to his sons. Now right there, there's something happening because the assumption is this patriarchal tradition of the father passing on to his sons,

and then his power, exactly, his authority. So verse two, now the name of his first born son was so even right there. Joel. Yeah, yeah, Joel. Billy Joel, if you heard that bit, Billy. Oh, no, no, I haven't. It's a Jim Gaffigan bit. And he was performing in Ireland somewhere. And one of those sound engineers as he was kind of getting ready for the show was like, hey, uh, you know who I love that American Billy Joel and Gavigan couldn't forget what he was saying. That's funny. Billy Joel. Yeah, you'll well. You'll well. Okay. So notice the narrator's drawing attention to the name of the first born. So we're in that territory again. So we have his two sons, and they were judging in Beir Shava, but his sons did not walk in their father's ways.

They turned aside to dishonest gain, and they took bribes and perverted justice. So we're at that piece, that part of the firstborn motif, which is hereditary authority being passed down doesn't equate to character. Like the fact that the father had a good character doesn't mean that his son's well. And so now you have this authority being passed on to people who aren't fit for it. So the elders come together and they say to say, I mean, look, you look, you're old man, and your sons, well, they're not like you. So a point, a king for us to judge us, you know, like all the other nations. So what's interesting here is that

one of the motives is good. Uh-huh. Like, these guys aren't like you. Yeah. They're not qualified. But... You've been legit, Samuel, but your kids are not going to work. Yeah. So, but what they asked for isn't just like, let's pray that God would raise up a new

judge. What they want is an institution. And what they want is a king. And their other part of their motive is really clear. So we can be like all the other nations. Now I feel like there's been times in the Torah where we've been warned against a king. Yeah. And that should be ringing in our ears like, ooo, a king. Yeah. That's not smart. Yes. In fact, this story is hyperlinked for Badam too. The section of the Torah that you're thinking of, John. Gold Star, man. Look at you. Hyperlinking it up. Deuteronomy. Chapter 17, verse 14.

When you enter into the land, which the Lord your God gives you, and you possess it, and live in it, and you say, I want to set a king over me, like all the other nations who are around me. You should set a king over you whom Yahweh your God chooses and it goes on to talk about the qualifications for that king. So definitely Yahweh saw this coming. And of course they're like, you know, the group of people in the land. like the group of people in the land. So. Is this the passage that talks about the king, like not multiplying his riches and being a Bible nerd

and that kind of stuff? He shouldn't multiply horses, that is tanks. Or definitely don't go back to Egypt, your former enslavers, to buy tanks, that is horses. You shouldn't multiply wives, implicit in there is treating women like property, which is definitely not a garden of Eden ideal, but also political alliances and religious alliances is all woven in here, and also don't increase silver and gold. Basically, the

three things that all money, sex and power is kind of what we're after here. Right. Rather he should be a Bible nerd, make his own copy of the Torah and just read and reread that all the days of his life. Hanging out with the priest. Yeah, totally. Okay, so that's the ideal king from God's point of view in the Torah. Back here it's for Samuel 8. What's tricky here is one of the motives is good. Your sounds aren't like you, Samuel. But their solution to that and the other motive for their solution, you're supposed to just know, like, this is not probably the best thing.

So watch the dynamic here. Literally, it was raw. It was evil or bad in the eyes of Samuel. When they said, give us a king. And so Samuel prayed to Yahweh, and Yahweh said to Samuel, listen to the voice of the people, with regard to all they say to you,

because they haven't rejected you, rather they've rejected me from being a king over them. This is what they've been doing since the day I brought them up out of Egypt to this day, in that they keep forsaking me to serve other gods. And they're doing it to you too. So then, listen to their voice. However, you should warn them and tell them what the customs of a king are who will reign over them.

So this is fascinating. Yeah, what's fascinating here is it seems like God is saying that by asking for a king, there's in some ways seeking after other gods. Yes, that's exactly right. Yeah, this little paragraph for Samuel 8 verses 7 through 9, it's a three-part speech, and it's a low mirror symmetry. And so in the first part, it's listened to the voice of the people, they haven't rejected you, they've rejected me. The last part of this speech is listen to the people, but warn them about what the king will do. And then in the middle of those two is, hey, listen, this is just a replay of what they've

been doing since the Golden Calf, which is forsaking me to serve other gods. So this speech is setting this request of the people on analogy to the request of the people at Mount Sinai to make the golden calf. Because this Moses, we don't know what happened to him. My God's already provided a leader. It's Moses. But we don't know where he is.

So let's have some other, let's make for ourselves an Elohim who will go before us. That's super important for this story. Yeah, because the connection is power. It's like who's going to protect us? Who we give our allegiance to, who will be the one who protects us? Yeah, so I mean, the analogy is, throughout the book of Judges,

whenever danger came on the scene, Yahweh's spirit would just pick somebody and raise them up, you know, like a Gideon, or a Jeffsa, or a Oseniel, or a Shamgar, you know, all these unnamed, you know, named a bit of undescribed figures in the book of Judges. But what a king is, is like, hey, we can make our own institution. And then like

with a guy at the head, and then that guy can protect us. And that's the shift in allegiance that's happening here in the story. And it's being equated to the sin of the golden calf. So fascinating. And isn't that because that the Elohim, they rule through kingdoms and kings in the biblical imagination. Like Nebuchadnezzar, he's like the manifestation of the king of Babylon. And so you can worship the God of Babylon,

but you could also worship Nebuchadnezzar and those two ideas are kind of connected. Yeah, for sure. Babylon, but you could also worship Nebuchadnezzar, and those two ideas are kind of connected. Yeah, for sure. Yep, and the famous story of Shadrach Meshach and Abednego with the image bowing down to the image, or they wouldn't bow down to the image of the great king of Babylon and so on. So that's exactly right. And ideally, kings are humans, and humans aren't the image of God. And so in that sense, they are called to be representations of God's rule. But here, the human kingship institution

the Israelites want to put into place is their golden calf. So it's interesting how all these themes come together, but notice, so you have a guy Samuel, whose firstborn and secondborn are the rulers in his place, and God is going to bring them down, just probably like Eli in the priest before them. But what the people want to replace Samuel and his sons with is like no better. I think that's the point to be made here.

Yeah, it's interesting because the idea of humans ruling is a good thing. Yeah, right. But it seems like here, the idea is that wanting a king isn't about wanting to be the image of God. It's about God saw it as them saying, you know what, we can't really trust Yahweh's rule over us. We need an institution.

Yeah. We need our own thing. And that's pretty much the same as like going and just making idols. And that's just, that's interesting. I'm trying to wrap from my right around that. And there's a thread to pull there and we'll do that. Totally. Totally. When and if we make a theme video on idolatry, which we ought to. This story will be at the center of it, because this is the story of the origin of kingship in Israel, and as you work through,

especially into 1 Samuel 9 through 15, which is the story of Saul, the whole story is setting his rise and fall on analogy with the Israelites and their failure with the golden calf in Egypt. In other words, this is remarkable. The narrator who's retelling the story of the origins of kingship in Israel is trying to show us that it was an act of idolatrous mistrust from the very beginning. Wow. Yeah, what's funny is because oftentimes

in biblical scholarship, the book of Samuel is referred to as ancient Israelite propaganda for the monarchy in Israel. And you're just like, wow, like we're missing some serious signals here, because it's an indictment of monarchy. It's not propaganda for it. It's the opposite.

But anyway, that depends on the assumptions you have as you go into these stories in the first place. Okay, so what happens is Samuel then gives this long speech about, listen, if you want to king, here's what kings do, they're going to raise your taxes, they're going to take all your children and co-op them into their armies or bakeries. And he's going to like take all your fields and all of your harvests and make your children into slaves. And you're going to cry out because of this king that you say that you want. And you always not going to answer you.

That is, he's going to let you have what you want. He's going to give you what you've chosen. But the people say, no, no. They refuse to listen. There will be a king over us so we can be like the other nations So that this king can go out before us and fight our battles And you're like what that's what Yahweh has been doing and you so you kind of get the idea here so

This is this then the story about the rise of King Saul and There's a whole story to tell and we don't have time to go into it except the first thing we're told about Saul is that he's super handsome and from his shoulders up he was more tall than any of the other Israelites. He's like a giant. He's like one of the Nethylene. Do you think you're supposed to think of him as a giant? I mean that's interesting. I always imagine the giants being like, like not just a head taller than everyone, you know? Well, sure, but the narrative is drawing attention to, from his shoulders up, he was taller than any other Israelite.

So he may be a good giant at the moment. Yeah. But we're clearly connecting to like the huge people theme, you know, that began with the Nephilim back in Genesis. Yeah, even back then, being taller, I mean, because that's the case today. I think there's been studies that show that if you're taller, you on average make more money. Oh, fascinating. Oh, that's interesting. Stuff like that. Yeah. Yeah. Well, actually, sorry, this is relevant to that. Back up in the previous sentence,

the narrator calls Saul. He's from the line of Keish in the tribe of Benjamin and he was a mighty warrior, a Gibore, which is also what the Nephilim recalled in Genesis 6. Yeah, okay. So he is being compared to a giant Nephilim kind of guy. But what's interesting is Saul's story presents him as a new Adam and Eve, and all of his choices are like all hyperlinked to the moment at the tree in Eden and to a bunch of other things in Genesis. And it's all about his failure to, you know, take up this opportunity to rule as an image of God. And he makes some really bad choices that culminate with him making a bad choice on the seventh day in 1st Samuel 15 and we don't have time we don't have time to get into it, but it's a good example of

He didn't know he's not the first born as such He is the first king. Yeah, that is placed over Israel and he's clearly the one that the people value, but God sees it as idolatrous from the start. By comparing him to a Ghibor or Nephilim, that's all connected to the idea of kings, right? Like these were the mighty warriors, were the other nations' kings, they were the like god kings. Gilgamesh and Nimrod and all that bunch. Yeah.

So the whole story of the rise and fall of Saul, then is this case study in the failure of human idols to deliver essentially. So by the time you get to the end of for Samuel chapter 15, you get to this lion in verse 11, where the word of the Lord came to Samuel and said, I, it's hard to do this in English.

I regret that I have made Saul King. That's a new American standard. But it's that same word nacham that's used with Moses. In the flood narrative and the story of Moses, where God relents from the destruction that he was going to bring about. And here he relents from allowing Israel to have Saul as their king. It's so interesting. So Samuel goes to Saul and basically says that the kingdom is going to be torn

away from you because you didn't listen to the voice of Yahweh. And so that's how for Samuel 15 ends, this is the famous line in verse 28, the Lord has torn the kingdom of Israel from you today, Saul, and has given it to a neighbor of yours who is more tov than you, more good than you. And lo and behold, how does the next story begin? It's the story of the anointing of David for Samuel 16. So you can see this progression here. God has already now brought down a mighty, not first born, but a mighty first king. So as we we're going to see David is both the youngest son

being elevated over his brothers, but he's also the second king who gets elevated over the first king. So it's like this clever. He's like the backup king. Like the B squad king. All right, so that's the setup. It took us a while, but all the themes of the firstborn, you know, getting overturned by God's purpose are already at work. And now the story of David, the story is choice. Okay, for Sam 16, so the Lord said to Samuel, how long will you grieve over Saul since I have rejected him from being king over Israel? Fill up your horn with oil and go.

You know, because you just... Exactly. Because we all have like... That's one of those things you do. Yeah, we all have like big empty ram horns hanging on our wall or something. So fill it up with oil and go. I will send you to Jesse, the Bethlehemite. That is a guy named Jesse who is in the town of Bethlehem.

For I have, and it has selected a king, it's the word C. It's the same use of the word C that Abraham uses when Isaac asks, where is the lamb for the offering? And Abraham answers, God will see to it. Or is often translated to provide, but it's the word see, he will see it. And so what got- But is that different than the word see when it shows up like, you saw the fruit?

Yeah, same word. Same word. And actually, the word see and sight is a key, key word. Repeat it all over this chapter. That's why I'm drawing attention to it here. So what God says is, I have seen a king for myself among this guy's sons. And Samuel says, wow, how can I go?

When Saul hears about it, he's going to kill me. So yeah, he's like he knows Saul now and he knows that Saul's one of those kings where if he hears of a coup attempt You know, it's just the assassins come immediately. Typical typical king behavior So the Lord said okay take a cow a young cow have for with you and say I've come to sacrifice to Yahweh here in your town a young cow have her with you and say, I've come to sacrifice to Yahweh here in your town. So invite Jesse to the sacrifice and I will make you see what you shall do.

You will anoint for me the one whom I say to you. So Samuel did what the Lord said. He came to Bethlehem and the elders of the city came trembling out to meet him and said, uh, do you come and show them? That's a interesting. Isn't it? Little note. Why are they worried? I think it's kind of one of those things where like, if a certain authority figure shows up at your house,

it's not as scientific as it did. Yeah. You know what I mean? Yeah. This is a movie trope, isn't it? This is like when the principal walks into your classroom and your elementary school and it's like, oh, what are they here for? Yeah, totally. I remember having that feeling,

usually because I thought they were there for me. Which was often the case. Anyway, he said, no, I'm coming peace. I've come to sacrifice to the Lord. Make yourselves holy and come with me. Big sacrifice tonight, which means member sacrifice always means leftover meat and a big party and a feast. So he made sure to make the Jesse and his sons holy so that they can fight them to sacrifice.

So it's interesting if you get invited to one of these sacrificial meals, you need to go through like a purity process to make sure you go like wash yourself in the make of a in the pool and abstain from don't eat anything unclean that day or that kind of thing. Mm-hmm. Yeah, I'm thinking back to our holiness video and all the ritual things that make you clean or unclean or pure or impure, which is a way to set yourself apart to

be able to engage in a sacred kind of activity. Yeah. So when you sacrifice an animal in what in Leviticus, these are called the fellowship offerings or the peace offerings, the purpose is one to say thank you to God, but you say thank you to God by offering up some of the animal, but the majority of it, you keep and then invite a bunch of people to a holy party. That's just a big sacred Thanksgiving party to Yahweh, and you celebrate by eating as much meat as you can because it's rare and it's not going to keep. And it's not going to keep, yeah.

Okay, so everybody comes to the party. And when Jesse and his sons come in, this is so good. Samuel saw, there's that word again. He saw Eliyov, who is Jesse's first born son. And he thought, oh, surely. Yalway's anointed is before him now. But Yalway said to Samuel, do not look, there's that word again, don't look at his appearance, and that word appearance is exactly the word used of the tree of knowing good and bad in Genesis 3.

When the woman saw that the tree was good of appearance and desirable for gaining wisdom and desirable for eating. She took the tree and she ate. That word appearance is, that's a key link word here. So question about that. Appearance, what's the word in Hebrew? Ah, mar-e is the noun and it's the noun of the verb or a-aha, which is to see or to look at. Oh, it's a noun so to be seen, basically. Yeah, or the thing seen.

Appearance, it's like what one looks like when others see you. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Yeah, so don't look at his. The thing being seen. Yeah, that's right. The whole point is Eliav, who's the first born of Jesse,

has an appearance. He looks a certain way and he's got his about to say what. So he says, don't look at his appearance or the height of his stature. It's exactly the same words used of Saul of him being high in stature above any other Israelite. So don't look at him or his height because I've rejected him. And that's the key word just used of Saul in the previous story. I've rejected him as king of Israel. And did I miss something? Eliab isn't described as which son. It's just one of the sons.

Oh, and not yet. You'll learn, is this good Hebrew narrative style where the key information is left to the very end of the story. Which forces you to go back and reread it. So you're right, you don't know if he's the first born or not. What you notice he's a son of Jesse and that he's super tall. And he's really tall, like Saul. And God has rejected him, like Saul, the really tall guy. So don't look at his appearance or the height of his stature because I've rejected him. And then this next line really is The heartbeat of our first born theme video like it's being put into one line right here. Mm-hmm

for God Does not see as humans see for humans see the outward appearance But Yahweh sees the heart. Like that's kind of. Okay, this is fascinating. We've been talking about power. I've been using that word a lot. Here, the vocab is seeing.

And it seems to be that there's a little bit of a connection here between the desire for power and this idea of how we see things. Yes. And especially as it relates to this, this core narrative where that we first introduced to this vocab with Eve seeing the fruit that it's desirable and will make her wise, right? That's what it says. That's right. And it's good for eating, and it's desirable and will make her wise, right? That's what it says.

That's right. And it's good for eating and it's just beautiful. Yeah. And it's tasty. There's something about our propensity to look at something and to go, oh, that thing's going to be good for me. Yeah. I'm going to take it and usually that impulse is around power or... Desire. Influence or...

But the desire is, could be a desire just to enjoy it. But here, the idea is about protecting ourselves, about who's going to be in charge throughout power. But also, what's at stake is the criteria of how do you know What makes someone be the right person to be in charge? Right? What qualifies someone for power is that they're tall. Yeah Or that they come from a good family is that the value and it's the same idea of what qualifies a piece of fruit to be good Mm-hmm. Is it that it's

Tasty and the fruit here being a metaphor for gaining wisdom, like how are you going to get wisdom? And how do you judge that thing that you think's gonna bring you wisdom? It's a period. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Okay.

And so, and remember that's also what was at stake with Samuel and his sons. He just assumed, well, there are my sons and my first born son, so yeah They deserve to have the authority and the people are like now a King deserves to have all the authority and God's like no And now God says I'm gonna choose a king and now Eliov certainly deserves to have the authority. And God's again like, no, not that guy. Not that guy.

So really this is a theme about humans are really poor judges of knowing what is truly valuable and good and should be set above as like the most important or in this case positions of authority. Right. Yeah. And so the theme could go in one case positions of authority. Right. And so the theme could go in one direction of like, what do I desire? The other theme could go, the same theme can go in a direction of who do I want to rule? Yeah, yeah, that's right. Because remember back in Genesis, when Abraham and Sarah are faced with this choice of, we

want a son, God said, we would have a son. How do we want a son, God said, we would have a son. How do we get a son? And so Hegar becomes, you know, they see her, they take her, they do what's good in their eyes. So there it's about a desire for security and family and abundance. Whereas here, that desire for power and self-protection security is being set on analogy to the golden calf and the tree. So, humans have a way of thinking they know what is good for them, but actually you don't know Samuel. What Yahweh looks at is the heart of the individual.

And so what Yahweh knows is that of all of these sons, there's actually only one who is really going to be qualified for the task At least for a little while and hearts and Hebrew is Not like on complete parallel to how we think of heart and English, but there's a lot of similarities We can talk about the heart of a matter meaning like the like the center the core and We can talk about the heart of a matter, meaning like the center, the core. And so to that degree, it relates.

But the heart and Hebrew, as I understand it, is like this is the kind of culminating hidden part of you. That's not just your emotions, but it's also your intellect. It's every bit of you, but it's the idea that it's in the core and it's hidden. Yeah, and really at the core of even intellect and emotion is desire and will. Yeah.

The heart is associated with what one wants, and then the purposes one comes up with to achieve what one wants. Which is very similar to how we use the word heart. But we have also uses of the word heart that aren't really like what Hebrew heart is. In fact, we made a video about this. So this is a powerful little line. It's one of the few times you get a really condensed statement of God's reason for constantly overturning these structures of human power and value and authority that's embodied in the right of the first born. So, Storkeeps gone.

Jesse called Abinadab, who is apparently another son, and made him pass before Samuel. And he said, the Lord has not chosen this one either. Next, Jesse made Shama pass by, and he said, the Lord has not chosen this one either. Jesse made seven of his sons, passed before Samuel. And Samuel said to Jesse, the Lord has chosen none of these. So Samuel said to Jesse, are these all the boys? And he said, well, there still remains the, and the New American Standard reads the youngest, but it's the Hebrew word katan, which means smallest. And it can be used to refer to a younger son. Oh, like Jacob is called this in contrast to Issa, who's called the bigger son and the smaller son. And it's kind

of ironic because Issa was kind of like one of these gibborem, you know, his big animal. Big hair guy. Big hair guy. And Jacob was a smooth man. But for sure there's a contrast here between big tall Eliab, his oldest brother, and then youngest, smallest David, the youngest brother. So there's still the small one. And look, he, you know, he's out keeping the sheep. You know. And Samuel said to Jesse, yeah, send him. We will not sit down until he's here. And so said to Jesse, you know, send him, we will not sit down until he's here. And so he sent and brought him in. And he was. So I don't know why this is so

funny. Ready is what the new American standard reads here. Let's. Yeah, that's a funny word. Ruddy. Ruddy. I think I've ever used that word. Hahaha. He, um, oh, look at the NIV. He was glowing with health. Hahaha. Oh, wow. Okay. New living translation.

He was dark and handsome. Dark and handsome. That's right. It's, well, that's fascinating. It's the Hebrew word, admoni, which it's the form of the Hebrew word adom, which is what Isa is called when he's read. It's the word read, but it means he has a dark complexion. Okay. So apparently, yeah. So the dark and handsome that comes from Rudy and beauty. Oh, because he says beautiful eyes is the next line.

Okay. Yeah. So he had a really dark complexion, but bright beautiful eyes and a handsome appearance. So he also has an appearance. Mm. Okay. And actually that handsome appearance, yeah,

but it was funny, it was not funny, but this handsome appearance is going to be part of his downfall, like way later in the story, when he takes a woman forces himself, Bashiba forces himself on her, and then it's going to be his handsome beautiful son, Absalom, who's going to form a coup to overthrow his dad because of the cascade of events that come from that adultery and murder. So even right here, as you're introduced to him, you're given a little clue forward to like his downfall later on. Interesting. Interesting. Yeah. But for the moment, he's just a dark handsome dude. But he is, he is the

small one. So in juxtaposition, he is the youngest brother. He wasn't even thought of in the lineup, and he's like small. Yeah. So you kind of get this juxtaposition with that, but then when he shows up, you're like, oh man, this guy's got some swagger. Talk. Talk.

Yeah. And right now, I'm not saying it's negative. I think it's ambiguous for the moment. But usually, because also, this is exactly the same phrase used to describe Joseph in the book of Genesis. Oh, okay. And it's,

No, no, no, no, the beautiful of form and handsome of appearance. Okay. Whereas David is beautiful of eyes and handsome of appearance. Okay. And there's all kinds of really elaborate hyperlinks between the story of Joseph and the story of David.

They set them on analogy to each other. But anyway, all that to say is right now, it's a good thing. It's not or it's a neutral thing. Yeah. So when this guy shows up with a dark complexion, bright eyes, and handsome, Yahweh says, get up Samuel, anoint him. He's the guy. So Samuel took the horn of oil, anointed him in the midst of the brothers, and the spirit of Yahweh came on him, mightily with power from that day forward. And so the whole story now is going to be about David's slow rise to power, never taking it, waiting for Yahweh to bring him to the kingship, which is in parallel to the

slow decline and corruption of Saul throughout the rest of the story of Samuel. So we can take our leave of it for the moment, you know, but I think the point being made here is so relevant to our bigger theme in these conversations about the first point. Yeah. I think what's lingering in my mind right now is we could spend hours now just thinking about the life of David and how he uses his power. And I'm sure there's tons we could go through. And just because this theme of God choosing the lesser, the unexpected in giving them power, what I've been trained to notice now by reading these texts with you, especially in Genesis,

is there's so many twists and turns. And so here, you've got the people want a king. That's a problem. God lets them have a king. It's the guy you would think, you would want by his appearance and he's strong and he's tall. And then God says, that's not actually the guy we're going to find. I'm going to show you the guy and he's hidden away in the hills and he's the guy you wouldn't expect. And right there, it's kind of like at the core of God choosing the lesser unexpected.

And it feels like right in the center lane of the theme. But it seems like as we then go and read the life of David, even that gets turned upside down. And stretched and twisted, and it's not as simple as, God just chooses the unexpected and then things go well because he know, you know, it's like I think what you've said at some point in conversations is, or maybe this was just when we were drafting and writing scripts, that just because God gave the lesser the power, it doesn't solve the power dynamic problems and the sibling rivalry problems.

Exactly. It almost like lays them bare even more. Yeah. Yeah. And like exaggerates them sometimes. Yeah, that's well said. And I know in the video, we kind of work this in because we're like sometimes it's the jealousy

of the older brother or the person in a place of power status and they get jealous and angry and they act violently towards the one God has chosen. Sometimes you get a younger one who wants the position of the firstborn like ham or rubin. And so they grab after it and that creates all kinds of conflict. And then other times, yet another twist is the one that God does choose, who's the lower one, the one of low status, or the second born. When that one is given the honor

and responsibility, they eventually abuse it themselves and corrupt it. And that's the pattern of like, of a Jacob, or of sometimes Abraham, and then in this case of David, where he does good for a while, but then he really blows it and then it all just comes crashing apart. And that's that cycling. This is just how the Hebrew Bible works. It's just story after story after story of like, here's somebody who tries to be an image of God and kind of works, but also really doesn't. So here's another story, and it just as the tension builds, I think that is the momentum that turns into the Messianic Hope of the Hebrew Bible, of projecting forward of the kind of human firstborn we really need, or at least the one whom God will elevate, whether

he's the first born or not, we just need a human who will not be a champ. And the David story fits into that pattern. So it sounds like we're kind of learning, there's two key insights here with this theme. And one is that God's going to subvert our structures, And so don't get cozy and don't just take what you expect. And let's relearn power in an upside down way. But then the second insight is, in spite of that, we're so screwed up that we'll find a way to distort power in any situation.

And man, do we need someone who doesn't do that? That's right. Someone who will be so empowered by the spirit of God, and notice the spirit gets introduced here in the David story in a really important way. Someone who is so in tune with the will of God by being connected to God through the presence and power of God's spirit that they actually represent God's authority and power, but in a way that truly gives life instead of creates just another time on the merry time in the book of the book. In Isaiah chapter is once through 12, which is the first important kind of literary bundle of the scroll. There's this hope of a coming king who will deliver Israel and bring justice to the nations.

And in Isaiah chapter 11, this is a poem we've read many times over the years, but relevant for right now, that King is described as a little branch that will spring up out of the stem or the stock of Jesse. We just read a story about him. Yeah. Jesse's not mentioned very many times in the Hebrew Bible. And you just read the story where he's mentioned the first time in Samuel and here he is being mentioned again So here he's the father of David. Yes father of David. So Jesse is being referred to as like a thick stock of like a plant

and There's going to be a new little offshoot of it. So actually this is key. So in other words, this future hoped for King won't just be a new son of David, like the Kings from the line of David. What you actually want is a new David. A new son of Jesse, not a son of David, but a son of Jesse. And a branch from his roots will bear fruit,

like Eden fruit, the spirit of the Lord. The new David will bear fruit. The new David will be like a branch bearing fruit, and the spirit of the Lord will rest on that branch, the spirit of wisdom, understanding, the spirit of counsel, strength, knowledge, and the fear of the Lord. The poem goes on to say he will rule with justice,

he will bring fair justice for all the poor and he afflicted in the land and he'll slay the wicked with the breath of his lips. We're going to have dude Garden of Eden when this guy shows up. I mean you have Wolves chilling with lambs and leopards with young goats. Now, nowhere in the Garden of Eden's story does it talk about how animals behave with each other? No, no. But, you know, Adam, so they're naming the animals. Presumably, they're not like eating each other

as he does so. Ha-ha-ha. Ha-ha-ha-ha. You know. And also the Ark, with the animals in the Ark, is another image of humans and animals all together at peace. At peace. Yeah.

Yeah. Oh, and this is good. In case you didn't get the Eden images. And the nursing child will play by the whole of the cobra. And the Weaned child will put his hand into the Viper's den. So even the snake. Even the snakes have power. Yeah, totally. And the seed of the woman will be able to play with the snake.

Come on, that's good. They will not hurt. They will not destroy an all-my-holy mountain. So notice how the cosmic Eden mountain, that's kind of being brought up here. For the land will be filled with knowing Yahweh, like the waters cover the sea. That will be a good day. Okay, so that's you're expecting a king from the line of Jesse to bring about the new Eden.

This is a theme that gets developed throughout the book. As you go, I mean, it's really skipping forward, but in the gets developed throughout the book. As you go, I'm really skipping forward, but in the later sections of the book, this expected king starts getting called the servant. Yahweh calls him my servant. And this is the famous suffering servant poem, Avisaa 53, and I just wanna read the opening lines, and I think a bunch of things will click.

At least they do for me now. So the poem begins with God introducing his servant. And he says, look, my servant will prosper. He will be high and lifted up and greatly exalted. So let's just pause. This is about power and exaltation. Yeah. This is like humans in Genesis 1,

an image of God that he exalts to rule over the land. So God has a servant that he's going to elevate and rule over the land. I'm gonna switch translations here. Verse 14, just as many. What are you right now? I'm in the Lexum English Bible, which I've known about for a while that I've been starting to use more.

It's one of the only English translations that in the Old Testament has the divine name said Yahweh instead of Lord. So if you wish that you had a Bible that said Yahweh instead of Lord, the lesson in the Bible is for you. So for S14, just as many were appalled at you, so was his. Who's the you? Exactly. Deep rabbit hole on who that you.

It seems like the you is referring to the people of Israel, and that Israel's shame and disgrace that being defeated and exiled among the nations is going to be set on analogy to how this servant is going to be viewed. So just as many were appalled at you, most likely, like, exiled, defeated Israel. Yeah, refugees, Israel. Yeah. Such was his, that is the servant's appearance. Notice that word, appearance. Beyond human disfigurement, his form was marred beyond the sons of men. He was not rudy. He was not ready. Yeah. Not ready. Enhanced some of appearance. Rather, he was like, not ready and handsome of appearance. Rather, he looked like a ruined, disfigured human. Well, that is fascinating.

In other words, the one that God has chosen to rule the nations is the one who, like his people Israel, is a defeated, disfigured, trashed people group that nobody thinks is important anymore. You're not gonna look at him and go, that's the guy, that's the fruit. That has the appearance that I'm looking for.

Yeah, man, that's so powerful. But just like how the Babylonians, or Nebuchadnezzar, thought about the Israelites that he conquered and hauled off in chains, to Babylon, nobody was looking at the people of Jerusalem and saying, in this people group is contained the future seed that God will use to rescue the cosmos.

Like nobody's thinking that. But like that's what's at stake here in this story, from the viewpoint of the biblical authors. And so just as many people were appalled at you, Israel, God's servant, is considered like just a ruin disfigured human. But, verse 15, he will be the one to sprinkle many nations. Is that, have to do with purification? Yes. This is exactly the word used of what the priest does on the day of atonement in the Holy of Holies. Sprinkling blood on the on the Holy of Holies and the Ark of the

Covenant. Yeah, totally. Yeah. And so in other words, in reality, this is the guy who's going to reconcile and purify and bring new creation to the cosmos. Wow. Wow. And because of him, he's the ultimate priestess. Yeah, totally. Yes, exactly. Totally. Verse 15, because of him, kings will shut their mouths. Because what they will see is something that has never been told them before. And they'll consider with full attention something that they've never heard before.

Because that's what kings like to do. They like to like consider another position that they've never heard before. Oh, oh, no, I think what it is is it's like God, God is going to do something that will so turn upside down human expectation and value that not even the most powerful rulers of the land sought coming. Like they won't know how to respond. No, when they hear the story of this inversion of what humans think is important and see that the God of Israel, the God of creation, universe, has associated himself with the lowly and the suffering to save the universe, it will just bend every category that you have. And the next line goes on to say,

yeah, who's gonna believe this message? That's so funny, that's the exact thing I was asking myself. Like what king is gonna like experience this servant and be like, whoa, I've never thought of this before. Totally. Yeah, Isaiah 51. Who will believe this message? To whom has the arm of Yahweh been revealed?

He, that is, the servant, went, grew up like a chute. There's that word from Isaiah 11, like a little plant or branch before him, like a root from dry ground, but he, the servant, had no form or majesty that we should see him and no appearance that we would take pleasure in him. And the whole poem goes on to say, like, we thought he was cursed by God, but in reality, he was the one who God sent to die for our sins and then to be resurrected and raised out the other side to declare the many righteous. That's how the poem ends.

And to see life and light and resurrection on the other side. So Isaiah 53 is actually reflecting back on this whole theme throughout the whole Hebrew Bible and putting a really powerful imagery to it. Yeah. It's a perfect setup for the gospels and how this theme is carried forward in the story of Jesus. Right. You almost imagine when Jesus is walking with... there's a couple stories where Jesus is like opening scripture with... maybe it's just the one story. Is it Luke? He's walking with.

Yeah, yeah. At the end of Luke. He goes to disciples. Yeah. And he's like, oh, let me show you how the Hebrew Bible talks about me. Maybe he turned to Isaiah 53, maybe like, Isaiah 11, Isaiah 53, and he's like, look, yeah. Maybe they'd talked about King David a little bit, maybe they, you know. I know. Maybe they had this kind of conversation. Totally, yeah, oh to be a fly on the wall.

Yeah. But what's rad is like, what Isaiah is doing is just bringing together all of the cycles of this theme, like they go all the way back to the first pages. And he's just condensing it into this powerful poem that brings all the images together. And there's a reason why this poem is kind of holy ground. In early Christianity, Jesus was clearly influenced

by the language and ideas here, and so were the apostles. They constantly quote from this poem, and say that it was Jesus in this life, death, and resurrection that brought all this into reality. But the core motif is that God, as Paul will say, God uses the lowly and despised things of the world to shame the wise and the strong. And that's the wisdom and power he sees displayed in Jesus' life, death and resurrection. The crucified slave is the king of the cosmos. That's... he's the ultimate first born. Which is, that's where we're going to go next. Yeah, it's exactly right. And as we do go,

there are next into the story of Jesus. it's just important to see like the deep continuity with the themes of the Hebrew Bible. But they get ratcheted up like even more intensely in the story of Jesus. So I say that's what we should talk about next. Great. Thanks for listening to this episode of Bible Project Podcast. Next week we're exploring the theme of the first born in the gospel accounts about Jesus. These two ways that Jesus is a son of God, one is through his human lineage, it goes through Joseph, Mary, and looks back to Adam, and that's

crucial for him coming as a human to do for humans, what no human seems to be able to do. But the baptism is revealing this other aspect of his identity. That in appearing among us as a son of Adam, that one is at the same time the eternal son of the Father. Today's episode was produced by Cooper Peltz with the Associate Producer Lindsay Ponder, edited by Dan Gummel, Tyler Bailey, and Frank Garza, Hannah Wu provided the annotations for our annotated podcast in our app.

Bible project is crowdfunding nonprofit, and we exist to experience the Bible as a unified story that leads to Jesus. Everything that we make is free because of the generous support of thousands of people just like you, so thank you so much for being a part of this with us. Hi, this is Laurel, and I'm from Redford, Michigan. Hi, this is Logan, and I'm from Boulder, Colorado. I first heard about Bible Project after I started following Jesus during my freshman year at the University of Colorado.

I used Bible Project to grow in my own understanding of the Bible, and I also used it in small groups in one-on-one discipleship with college students. I first heard about Bible Project, listening to a podcast from a local church. I used Bible Project for the Read Scripture app and the classroom classes. My favorite thing about Bible Project

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